Invitro and invivo testing and development of drug in cell culture against haemoprotozoan parasites

Abstract

During the last few decades cell culture techniques have developed rapidly and become a major tool in modern biotechnological research. The protozoan parasites have complex life cycles and therefore, there are a number of issues involved in successful culture of protozoan parasites due to complex biological mechanisms at various stage of life cycle, some of which are still unknown. The life cycle involves a many number of variables, including parasite stage, host site, host temperature, host immune responses, parasite species and/or strain, and parasite-protective mechanisms; these factors make difficult for development of in vitro cultivation techniques for parasites. Development of in vitro technique for propagation of protozoan parasites requires simulation of host environment including essential variable factors required for survival of parasites. Routine cell culture medium formulations are generally not sufficient to meet the growth requirement of protozoan parasites and some components may have inhibitory effect. Much research is needed for development of defined medium formulations for in vitro cultivation of protozoan parasites in general and haemoprotozoan parasites in particular. The in vitro culture has many advantages viz., obtaining a continuous supply of pure organisms for different research and development activities, to study parasite metabolic pathways, identification of potential therapeutic agents, antigen preparation for immunological studies, vaccinology, molecular and biotechnological studies. The need for cultivation of haemoprotozoan in in vitro system is gaining much attention because of the additional advantage of allowing for the maintenance of parasites as an alternate of animal model. In the present chapter techniques for in vitro cultivation of Trypanosoma evansi and Theileria equi have been explained.